LIFE should be made "more awkward, more expensive and more difficult" for car drivers in Greater Bristol to get them on to public transport, the four councils in our area have been told.
tiny.cc/eaho2
The West of England Partnership (a body that contains representatives from bus and rail companies but alas no motoring representation) makes the above recommendations.
For those that don't know the location the Greater Bristol area has one of the worst and most expensive bus networks in Britain.
My personal experience:
I live north west of Bristol, a car journey into the centre of Bristol takes 20 minutes (30 max. in the peak times) and about 30 minutes into the centre of Bath.
The bus into Bristol runs every 2 hours, takes 1hr 40 minutes (goes all round the houses) and doesn't run after 6 pm.
There is no bus to Bath
When my youngest son was at college in Bath I had to drive him 7 miles every morning to the nearest bus stop to catch the Bath bus. Twice a week his course ended at 6pm - the last bus of the the day (for our area) departed from Bath at 5.55pm!
We do have a railway line running through our village that carries the mainline between Birmingham and Bristol - alas the last train stopped in 1963! The station is still there and the platform, there is "talk" of reopening the station but in the 14 years I've lived here it is still just talk.
It's difficult to see how much " more awkward, more expensive and more difficult" the local authorities can make it.
Jacks
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I'd be tempted to write to this unelected bunch of do-gooders and ask them why there is no motorist representative on their public funded group.
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I used to use public transport to get from Birmingham to Redditch each day.
If the train was late they'd stop it a Longbridge (on the outskirts of Birmingham) and send it back again! People going on to Redditch would have to wait for the next one.
It's pointless trying to get people to use public transport if its unreliable or non-existent.
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You missed highly paid, Pug, with luck they will soon be looking for real jobs.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 6 Jul 10 at 12:27
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But on the other hand what can we do to get a modal shift to PT. Because a lot of the stuff about unreliability is just people who don't want too looking for excuses.
I travel daily from Northampton to London by rail. There's the odd epic delay but it's far more predictable than car travel and, with an annual season, cheaper as well.
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I have the misfortune to do a regular run to two of our mills, at Portbury and Radstock.
Usually I go to Portbury first, which is easy enough; from there to Radstock involves a tortuous and poorly-signed route, passing through Ashton which, like Coventry, wasn't given sufficient attention by the Luftwaffe some years ago, but looks now as though they've been back to finish the job. At peak times, which seems to be most of the time, that part of the trip can take as long as the haul up from Carmarthen to Portbury.
I have long been at a loss to understand why Bristol, like Leicester, lacks a decent urban ring road.
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Anyone who proposes deliberately making car use more difficult in a congested town like Bristol needs to be put in the stocks for two weeks. Anyone who actually goes ahead and does it ought to be shot out of hand.
Alas, the carphound Livingstone is still alive flaunting his ugly little red face, unpleasant views and obese, baroque vowels in front of Londoners. And I imagine these twits in Bristol, a town where mimsing is a fine art practised by 90 per cent of drivers, will get away with it too.
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>> I have long been at a loss to understand why Bristol, like Leicester, lacks a decent urban ring road.
It's called the channel :-P (said in jest!!)
There's a podcast (for those that dable in these things) with a guy who runs a garage in brighton, i listen for his wisdom and general putting the world to rights.
His view was that the A62 (? going off memory here) which loops over the north of Bristol is no use but he had a solution, i just can't remember what i was.
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They have tried this sort of thing in Manchester. They have learnt is the only way to get people out of their cars is to improve public transport. From next year our light rail system will be world class and it will take a lot of cars of the road.
Simply making driving more difficult and not providing a reliable alternative will just bring businesses out of Bristol. If the councilers want to make what already is not exactly the richest part of the UK even worse then they can feel to do so.
I would have thought the four councils would be doing everything they can to attract new busnesses not put them off moving to Bristol.
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I suspect that the politicians who are suggesting this plan are 'career politicians' who have never had a job in the real commercial world (and who wouldn't survive 5 minutes if they did). Let's just hope that the voters of Bristol vote with their feet come the next election, or is that asking too much?
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>> I suspect that the politicians who are suggesting this plan are 'career politicians'
>
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Nail hit firmly on the head
From the "Partnership" website explaining "What we do"
quote
The Partnership has committed to undertaking any necessary mapping or research that is required to increase knowledge on local representation or provide other relevant information to enhance the operation of the forums and steering groups.
A higher level strategic partnership has also been formed to cover the whole of the West of England Partnership area, including West of England Consortium, Bristol Consortium, GOSW locality managers and Local Authority officers. The partnership brings together key stakeholders from both the voluntary sector and public sector to share a common understanding of the existing stage of development of VCS involvement in LSPs and discuss a shared approach to developing this for everyone benefit.
The consortium strives to be a Hub of Infrastructure Expertise, with partners committed to sharing experiences and good practice."
unquote
Unfortunately I have the horrible feeling that this unelected waste of space will somehow escape the forthcoming "cuts" whilst hardworking frontline staff such as health workers, policemen, care workers,etc, will bear the brunt - no doubt decided upon by similar "key stakeholders" who wrote the rubbish above.
Jacks
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...quote The Partnership has committed to undertaking any necessary mapping....
Meaningless drivel - the public servant who wrote that garbage should be ashamed of themselves.
They should then be sacked, and fed to Mr Moat.
A short introduction to the real world, before departing from it.
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"The consortium strives to be a Hub of Infrastructure Expertise"
Still striving but not succeeding then - Time for scoping some alternative blue sky scenarios down the job centre.
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>> .......If the councilers want to make what already is not exactly the
>> richest part of the UK even worse then they can feel to do so.
>> .......
Rattle - I guess by that comment that you dont know Bristol to well. in 2004 GDP per head was 40% above the national average giving it the third largest GDP per capita after London and Nottingham.
Like any City it has its poor areas and a lot of wealth. I am lucky that I live just over the county line in North Somerset so dont get caught up to much in the lunacy of BCC. Today they anounced yet another anti motorist / business initiative
www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/FIRMS-FACE-TAX-PARKING/article-2393186-detail/article.html
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Well the South West in general is quite a poor area (apart from tourisim and rich city people moving in the area) but wages in general are a lot less than the UK average. I am talking about the South West proper though, Bristol is a bit more central.
I could see a lot of new investment by the old docs near the river but a lot of the city centre looked like it needed investment from businesses. It would be interesting to find out where a lot of the people in Bristol actually work.
You find that in Manchester, the city itself is quite poor but the city centre is very rich, and a lot of people who live in the poshest parts of Cheshire work in Manchester and not Cheshire.
The city centre just seemed to lack quite a few of the basics most big cities now have, such as a mass transit system. My comment was knowing the stats for the south west in general not Bristol so I apologise for that. It would surely make more sense to invest in Bristol's transport system rather than penelise the motorist. One such thing the railway station is miles away from the city and there is hardly any development from the train station. This means you have a 10 minute walk from the station just to get into the first parts of the city centre.
It would make a lot more sense for Bristol city council to put on free shuttle buses (didn't notice any so I apologise if these exist already) from the station to the main shopping and business areas.
It dosn't help that First bus run all the buses, if they operated in my part of Manchester I thInk I would have learnt to drive a long time ago but I think they have improved since.
At leas the trains are very cheap down there compared to up.
Somerset is a lovely part of the world although I didn't spent long there, just Minehead but had to travel through it a lot of times, for example I got to know Tuanton well.
I think Bristol residents need to remind the council how important businesses are and one of the things people decide when locating business is how good the road and public transport system is.
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Rattle - no need to apologise - I think that a lot of people dont realise the wealth that's in Bristol. It has very low unemployment, and the breadth of employment is quite wide. There are many (like me) who are employed in the Aerospace industry, and also a lot of banking and insurance jobs, telecoms, Education etc etc - they key thing being that they are professional jobs rather than 1000's of retail and call center jobs. It has managed through the recession quite well, and with the exception of one mate I dont really know anyone who has suffered over the last 18 months.
Your comments as a visitor are spot on though - the train station is to far out of the centre, and the public transport network is carp. I live about 8 - 9 miles out of central Bristol, but the last time I got a bus it cost me £7 return or 4.40 one way. They have looked at alternatives for years (20 +) but never actualy agreed upon and actioned anything.
They appear to be on one this week - yet another anti car story in the local rag....
www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Cribbs-free-parking-spotlight/article-2397894-detail/article.html
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I am very drunk now but glad you agree about the lack of faciltilties near the train station. On the Sunday I was going back I changed train at Bristol as it was by the far the cheapest way of getting back to Manchester via Torquay. I had 70 minutes connection time in Bristol (I got to know the city centre well the week before) but I could not find any food place open I ended up buying old food from a shell Pereol Station next to an a supermareket. I was just amazed the city council had not made a big developement next to the station.
I spent a night near the old docs but the only way back to the station was to walk. It was a good 20 minutes walk and I just don't get the lack of a shuttle bus.
I realse with this government a mass transporty system is out of the question but if the city is so rich surely the council tax can afford some free shuttle buses.
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I wouldn't say the city is rich, but it has a lot of weath within it. The council is pretty poor and has a shed load of debt - they want everything to be done for them, or spend years arguing over it - its a joke really as where I live we are just outside the boundry and our council tax is probably 20% less, but gives far better services
The center has improved lots, but its a shame that the M32 into Bristol takes you through such a pink fluffy dice hole of an area before you get there - gives a bad impression before you even get out of the car! As I live the other side I aproach it either across the clifton suspension bridge (50p well spent!) or along side the docks, past the ss great britton - quite a nice drive.
Cant think where you ended up to be near a shell station, but I dont know the area around temple meads that well - I can drive and park at Bristol Parkway in about the same time it would take me to get to temple meads, and as its on the same line a lot of the trains stop at both
Last edited by: Webmaster on Mon 12 Jul 10 at 00:33
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I can't remember much about it, but I remember the places at the station being shut and no where was doing any food. I think there was a Wetherspoons near by but I just wanted a quick bite to eat. I was also caught in all the roudyness of a football match from a Cardiff and Bristol team.
I was amazed for a major city that the station was so basic but then I am used to Manchester Picciddily and Euston stations which along with New Street and other major London stations are the biggest train stations in the country.
It just seemed that the area around Temple Meads was very run down and they need a lot of investment to expand the city centre towards the station. This is what they have done in Manchester although I don't think that area will be complete till 2020 or beyond now.
For now though a free shuttle bus would be very welcome.
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Bristol City Centre has hardly changed since I was a child in the 1940s. It was updated in the early fifties and seemed frightfully modern then.
As people point out, it's still a very prosperous large town, but a pale shadow of its huge wealth as a mercantile and slaving port (long before Liverpool, its later rival in the Atlantic triangular trade, really existed). You only have to look at the buildings in and around the centre to see that. The Victorian housing in Bristol is comfortable middle-class stuff, without the hundreds of square miles of back-to-back, toilets-in-the-yard proletarian kennels that used to exist in the Northern industrial cities.
It was my father's home town but although I have known it all my life and still have relations who live there I'm not really fond of it. The pubs are crap and the mimsers many. There are a few things worth looking at though.
Bristol used to be a county in its own right, but now they have stuck it in some new entity called 'Avon'.
Once again, Sheikh Rattolo, I comment on your failure to use your car when you travel about our fair land. You'd have loved driving in Bristol where everyone crawls as a matter of course. And you wouldn't have been griping about having to walk 20 minutes from Temple Meads to the doctor's (assuming that's what you mean by the docs) because you couldn't understand the locals when they told you which bus to get. Tchah!
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And, Sheikha, if you think Temple Meads is in a bit of a wasteland you should try arriving at Mangotsfield Halt in the small hours of the morning...
:o}
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>> Bristol used to be a county in its own right, but now they have stuck
>> it in some new entity called 'Avon'.
>>
Avon was canned in 1996 (good job) They reinstated South Gloucestershire, Bristol City, Bath and North East Somerset, and North Somerset
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>> Avon was canned in 1996 (good job)
Good God, really? Shows what a current affairs whizz I must be. Perhaps I'm wrong about everything else too.
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...Avon was canned in 1996 (good job)...
Avon might have been canned, but not by everybody.
If your house catches light in Bristol City, the blaze will be put put out by Avon and Somerset Fire Brigade.
And if someone set the fire on purpose, the arsonist will be nicked by Avon and Somerset Police.
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>>
>> >> Avon was canned in 1996 (good job)
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>> Good God, really? Shows what a current affairs whizz I must be. Perhaps I'm wrong
>> about everything else too.
>>
Have to admit - I checked on Wiki and was sure it was only 4 or 5 years ago......and I live here.
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more awkward, more expensive and more difficult - R.P.
